


next thing (we're touching)

by superglasspiano



Category: Waterparks (Band)
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Pining, Sharing a Bed, uhh what else..
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:07:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27020035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superglasspiano/pseuds/superglasspiano
Summary: '“Hey, uh... can I try something?” Awsten asks, desperately hoping Geoff is still asleep in the other bed--and that Otto doesn’t say no.'orsince when is a kiss just a kiss amirite?
Relationships: Awsten Knight/Otto Wood
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	next thing (we're touching)

**Author's Note:**

> this one goes out to all the lovely people on tumblr dot com! i have brain worms! long live awtto! etc!

It’s been a long day. A long drive, with the promise of more tomorrow, and Awsten will be the first to admit he got more than a little rowdy in the car. So it’s really no surprise when they get to the hotel that Geoff passes out as soon as his head hits the pillow, starfished on one of the beds. 

And of course Awsten catches Otto’s eye. Grins, then grins wider when Otto giggles. 

They share the other bed. Sit facing each other on top of the covers, exhausted but too wound-up to sleep. Awsten makes a stupid joke, and Otto laughs and makes one back, and so on, until nothing they say would make sense to anyone else, and Awsten’s heart swells with something he’d rather not identify right now. He leans forward. “Hey, uh... can I try something?” he asks, desperately hoping Geoff is still asleep in the other bed--and that Otto doesn’t say no.

“Sure,” Otto says. His eyes flick down briefly before meeting Awsten’s again.

Awsten tangles a hand gently in Otto’s hair. Leans in. Otto mirrors him. 

Otto’s lips are soft--a little warm, a little chapped, a little perfect. They press sweetly against Awsten’s, and he melts in the sensation. Otto’s hand comes up to rest on his shoulder, pulling him closer...

Some part of Awsten’s brain screams, _what are you doing?_ and he jumps. Pulls back. Puts his hands in his lap and hangs his head so his bangs hide his warming cheeks. “I-I’m sorry, I don’t...I don’t know what... _fuck,_ I didn’t mean...” _Don’t hate me please--_

Otto’s grip on his shoulder loosens but he doesn’t remove his hand. “Hey.”

Awsten peers up through the curtain of his hair. Otto doesn’t _look_ upset. 

“Is this okay?” Otto asks, brushing Awsten’s bangs out of his face.

Awsten nods, holding his breath at the gentle touch of Otto’s fingers across his forehead.

Otto’s hand comes to rest on Awsten’s cheek. “How about this?”

Awsten nods again, and Otto smiles. He leans in until their faces are less than an inch apart, hot breath ghosting across Awsten’s skin as he asks, “And this?”

“Yeah,” Awsten breathes. “Yeah, it’s gre--”

Otto catches Awsten’s lips with his own, cutting him off. “Good,” he murmurs, and Awsten agrees. It is good. No, scratch that--it’s fucking amazing. He runs his fingers through Otto’s hair, rests a hand on Otto’s back and feels the warmth of his body through his t-shirt. Otto’s hand slides from Awsten’s cheek to the back of his neck, while his other hand rests on Awsten’s hip. They’re practically in each other’s laps, chests pressed together, pulling each other closer closer closer. 

There’s a noise from the other bed as Geoff rustles in his sleep. Awsten breaks the kiss, leaning away from Otto to glance over his shoulder. _Fuck, what if he’s been awake this whole time?_

But Geoff just rolls over. Snores a little. Sinks deeper into the abundance of hotel pillows piled around him. 

Awsten turns back to Otto and laughs--a breathy, relieved, slightly disbelieving sound that sums up how he feels better than any words ever could. Otto’s smile, barely more than quirk at the corners of his mouth at first, widens in return. 

“God, what if he’d--?” Otto starts, holding back a laugh.

“I don’t wanna think about it,” Awsten interrupts, but of course he already is, running a hundred possible reactions through his imagination. Would he shrug and roll over? Ask questions Awsten doesn’t know the answers to? Ask questions Awsten _does_ know the answers to but can’t possibly say out loud? Leave the room? Leave the _band_?

Otto puts a hand on Awsten’s shoulder, grounding him. “Hey,” he says, gentle but firm. “He’s asleep, right?”

Awsten takes a breath. Checks the other bed to again make sure. “Yeah.”

“So” --Otto smiles, stretching his other arm past Awsten and fiddling with the lamp switch; it clicks, and the room goes dark-- “we don’t wake him up.”

“Don’t wake him up,” Awsten echoes. “I think we can manage that.” He reaches for Otto. 

“Here.” Otto laces their fingers together and presses a kiss to the back of Awsten’s hand, and it might be the sweetest thing Awsten has ever felt. Awsten leans forward and finds the corner of Otto’s mouth with his lips, then the centre. Otto tilts his head, opens his mouth, his hand in Awsten’s hair, his breath in Awsten’s mouth, setting off nervous fireworks in Awsten’s stomach.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Awsten wakes up slowly, warm, content from a forgotten-but-good dream, and vaguely aware of a few things. One, a roaring noise that solidifies itself as a combination of the shower, the bathroom fan, and Geoff humming a Linkin Park song over the water. Two, the weight of an arm (not Awsten’s) draped over him. Two-point-five, his body tangled up with someone else’s, faces close enough their sleeping breaths land on his cheek. Three, the other person in the bed is Otto. 

_Otto_. 

Awsten’s eyes snap open. 

Otto’s face is inches from his face. Otto’s lips are inches from his lips. Otto’s legs are tangled around his, and Otto’s arm is draped over him, and Otto is fucking beautiful when he sleeps. Actually, he’s beautiful all the time, but there is something to be said for the way the pale dawn light falls on his face and catches in his hair--and the way he’s _right here_ , totally relaxed, halfway on top of Awsten like it’s the most natural thing in the world. 

Part of Awsten wants to stay this way forever--or at least until Otto wakes up and kisses him like he did last night, and they’ll never have to leave this bed because they have everything they want right here in each other’s arms. Or maybe Awsten could close the gap between their lips right now, and Otto would wake up and smile, one corner of his mouth raising just a little higher than the other, then roll over to hold himself above Awsten; and Awsten would reach up and Otto would lean down and they would meet in the middle. He goes tingly at the thought. 

But then another part of him presents the other ways Otto might react: pretending nothing happened; acknowledging what happened, and that it was a mistake; never speaking to Awsten again (for real, this time). Awsten’s mind races, strategizing how to wriggle out of Otto’s grasp without disturbing him.

The shower shuts off just as Awsten gets his legs solidly on his side of the bed. The bathroom door opens a minute later. “Good morning,” Geoff says, rubbing his hair with a towel.

“Morning,” Otto yawns, and Awsten freezes. But Otto just blinks sleepily at him. Then, “Aw man, did I--?” he lifts his arm off Awsten to mime a bear hug.

Awsten nods.

Otto yawns again. “Sorry ‘bout that.” 

He rolls over. Awsten stares at his back for several long seconds, watching his chest expand and contract with the rhythm of his breath, telling himself _this is fine,_ ignoring the ache radiating out from his core. Because it was just a kiss. It doesn’t have to mean anything. And if Otto wants to pretend it never happened...well, there are worse things. Things he doesn’t want to think about. Things Otto has done before.

Awsten climbs into the back seat of the car less than an hour later. Tunes out Otto and Geoff’s conversation as they pull out of the parking lot. Tries (and fails) not to stare out the window like an edgy thirteen-year-old pretending to be in a dramatic music video. 

He wallows in his thoughts until they’re on the open highway and Otto turns right around in the passenger seat to ask what’s up, at which point he puts everything he has into being his usual energetic self. He almost fools even himself, bouncing in his seat and singing along to every CD Geoff puts on, leaning ahead between the front seats to ask “are we there yet?” in an obnoxious tone at least once an hour until the answer (finally) is _yes, Awsten, we’re here_.

So they hand out flyers to as many people as will take them until it’s time to load their gear into the venue through the back door, get set up, and play. Awsten pours himself into the performance, glad he wrote these songs and knows every part by heart, locking in with Otto behind him and Geoff beside him. He convinces the small crowd to jump with him for half a song; it’s instinct when he glances over to meet Otto’s eyes and grin. 

Otto smiles back, shaking his hair out of his face, and Awsten almost-- _almost_ \--forgets the next line. But it’s the last repeat of the chorus and by this point a couple people are singing along. One of those people might be Otto, but Awsten doesn’t dare look over again to check; his heart feels like imploding and his thoughts are fuzzy and he needs to _concentrate, damnit, it was just a kiss_. 

The set ends. “We’ve been the band Waterparks!” he calls and ducks offstage. Closes his eyes and breathes for the seconds it takes Otto and Geoff to catch up to him. Hopes neither of them ask if he’s ok. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1:37 a.m. 

Awsten watches the numbers change on the hotel alarm clock. 1:38.

He’s right on the edge of the bed, nearly falling off, giving Otto as much space as he can. And he’s not thinking about last night. 

Which is to say, he can’t stop thinking about last night. Because here’s the thing: he gets butterflies remembering the way Otto’s lips felt on his. And he would very much like to do it again. Every day, forever. Otto is sweet, and funny, and has impeccable taste in music, and sometimes he does dangerous things because they’re fun. (Like skateboarding. And climbing trees. And climbing buildings.) He’s steady and kind and beautiful, and Awsten _wants._ He’s afraid to even think _what_ , but he _wants_. And it would be so easy to roll over right now, and not pull away when they wake up wrapped up in each other. To kiss him good morning and in that kiss tell him everything; he wants to think Otto feels the same, that Otto would kiss him back and agree. But that's the best-case scenario--not much more than a pretty dream. 

And the other thing: no matter how much Awsten _wants_ , he _needs_ this band to work out. Before he’s thirty years old, living with his parents, playing in local bands that will never make it out of Houston, getting asked when he’s going back to school or getting a real job by relatives who grow more judgemental every year. So he can’t do anything to jeopardize _this band, right now_ , and that includes _not alienating the last fucking drummer he knows._ If Otto wants to forget about it, to ignore it, Awsten will play along without being asked. 

Besides, it was just a kiss. Or maybe a couple of kisses, depending on how he looks at it. 

Does a full-blown make-out session count as “a kiss”?

Awsten bangs his head against the pillow and sighs. Loudly. 

“Can’t sleep?” Otto whispers. 

_Fuck._ “Guess not. Sorry.”

“Me neither. Don’t worry about it.”

It’s quiet for several seconds. Awsten stares at the ceiling, picking out nonexistent patterns in the texture. Maybe he should just say something. Ask Otto how he feels and have done with it. He could at least clarify the situation. He could... 

“So, um. About last night...” Otto says.

“We--we can forget all about it if you want. Pretend like nothing ever happened,” Awsten interrupts, trying and failing to play it cool. It would fucking suck, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep Otto around. 

Otto is quiet for a moment. Then, slowly, like he’s thinking each word through before he says it, “No, that’s...That’s not what I mean.”

“What?” Awsten asks, as in, _what the fuck?_ and, _what_ do _you mean, then?_ and maybe, _what would it take for you to kiss me right now?_

“Last night...” Otto sighs. “I don’t want to forget it. I mean--unless you want to.”

“No!” Awsten says, too loudly-- _it’s almost two fucking a.m.--_ then again, quieter, “No. I don’t want to either.” And now he’s said it out loud, the words hang in the air, in the silence. Silence because Otto doesn’t speak and Awsten wonders if he could have changed his mind already, but no. Otto sounded like he meant it every bit as much as Awsten did. As Awsten still does, and (he suspects) always will.

_What now?_ is sitting on the tip of Awsten’s tongue when Otto says, “Look at me?” somewhere between a question and a statement, and that answers that. Awsten rolls toward the centre of the bed. He can just see Otto’s smile in the light from the display on the alarm clock. It’s like gravity, the way Otto draws him in (though the dip in the middle of the mattress isn’t _not_ a contributing factor). Their heads land in the space between the pillows, foreheads pressed together, noses bumping. Otto laughs, and a spark runs through Awsten’s body. _We should probably talk about this,_ his mind says, but his mouth whispers, “Kiss me?”

“Any day,” Otto says, and then he does, soft and sweet like it’s the beginning, desperate like it’s the last thing he’ll ever do. And Awsten doesn’t know what will happen tomorrow or the day after, next week, next month, next _year_ , but he lets himself believe that it will be good. _Any day._ He melts into the kiss, into Otto’s warmth, into a thousand possibilities, each one better than the last. _Fuck it,_ he thinks.

And then he lets himself fall. 

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos give me life ;) 
> 
> i'd link my tumblr but surprise surprise i don't know how :/ anyways my @ is the same as on here, come say hi if you like


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